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It Could Have Gone Terribly Wrong

Take crayons, for example. Or should I say colouring pencils as they are now referred to. They have been upgraded since I was in love with the 124 colour wheel by Crayola (r).

They are now full fledged pencils.

I was doing a craft today with my little kindergarten Peach Class. My craft consists of colouring, cutting and pasting. Listen, people if TEACHER can't do the craft, then TEACHER looks a bit like an idiot so TEACHER chooses crafts wisely.

Things were going well. No one was fighting over whose colouring pencils were the best. No one was trying to make trades - say their 'nude' for someone else's 'sea blue'. No one was yelling (in Korean) at other kids for stealing/hiding/eating their colouring pencils. All in all, it was a good day for crafts.

Then it happened. Generally sweet and innocent, little K asked little R politely AND IN ENGLISH I MAY ADD if he could please borrow her brown colouring pencil because he didn't have brown and how could he possibly colour bread anything BUT brown, although I suppose white would do but he didn't have that EITHER and hey, his mom takes care of him and doesn't allow anything processed to pass his lips, except of course all that CANDY she sends in for him and the other kids and..

well, R was very sweet and said 'yes' (okay so she said something in Korean but I assumed it was cordial because he smiled and took the brown pencil).

Suddenly, he came back. Holding the colouring pencil. With the TOP HALF BROKEN OFF.

People, this could have produced bloodshed. You have not seen a child scorned until you see one that has had something broken by another child. Something as cherished and special as a colouring pencil.

Little K was trying to get Little R's attention and when he finally did, I thought it was over. The gloves were coming off, the tears were going to pour and the Korean words were going to flow and I was going to be powerless to stop it.

I braced myself for the inevitable. And waited in vain.

Because Little R looked up, saw the state of her precious pencil, gave a bit of a shrug, said something that sounded calm and cool and not at all like she was TOTALLY FREAKING OUT and then, she sweetly just took the broken piece from Little K.

What she did next astounded me. She actually started breaking the little piece into LITTLER PIECES and let out the cutest giggle I'd heard in a while.

Little K had a sweet guffaw and the two of them were laughing at the insanity of the way the pencil was only broken once but ..oh wait for the hilarity..many..ha ha...many...aaaaa...times!! aha hahahaaha....

It was a bit of a moment in human observation. I think if it had been another kid in the class, Little R would not have been so kind. There would have been the pout face and the stomping and the 'A Teacher, (korean korean korean) A Teacher (korean korean korean).

But Little K is a little sensitive. Like WAY MORE sensitive than my little brother, who if you know me, grew up hearing me say that 'he's sensitive' but I didn't know what sensitive was until I met this kid.

And Little R knows that. So she sacrificed her drama moment to keep another child from feeling alone and alienated. And that touched me.

So much that it took me a couple of minutes instead of seconds to tell them to 'Stop chopping up that colouring pencil. You'll make a mess'.

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About Me

Canadian creative soul who left home to travel the world. Has now lived on three continents and travelled five of them. Currently exploring Oxfordshire.
I started this blog to write about my journeys and adventures and to show people that you really can simply change your life by deciding to do so. No one is trapped in their surroundings. Coulda Woulda Shoulda is a reminder that you can always find an excuse not do so something but that doesn't make it right.